6 Employee Engagement Power Points

Open the door. A true open-door policy in which anyone can drop by anytime is unrealistic. But you can establish a regular time when you are available for questions, discussion, issues. Announce, then publicize and re-publicize the Open Door Time until it takes hold in the minds of your employees. You may have only few takers the first few weeks, but in time and with your persistence, this will become a valuable communication time for and with your people. ~ Tim Wright

Engagement and strategy. Most of the leaders I meet believe the people they lead are aligned with strategy and engaged in their work. The data suggest otherwise. The Conference Board released research in January that concluded employee satisfaction and engagement in America were at the lowest point since it began surveying more than 20 years ago. The report also concluded that the downward trend began long before the Great Recession. Another well-respected organization, the Corporate Executive Board, released research last year that concluded 75 percent of the employees were not engaged and giving their best efforts and of the 25 percent who were engaged, 60 percent were not aligned with organizational goals. The bottom line is that 90 percent of American employees are either not engaged or aligned with strategy. ~ Michael Lee Stallard

Alignment and culture. The truth of this statement lies in its simplicity. Employees don’t engage with widgets, deadlines or even people, necessarily. People engage with a sense of meaning, of purpose, of an understanding of fair play, of company values aligned with their personal values. The sum of all of this is your company culture. ~ Derek Irvine

Be consultative. Ultimately, adopting a consultative approach increases your value to clients, elevates the purpose of communications and makes initiatives more likely to succeed. How do you see yourself and your role? How are you evolving the way you work to become a counselor and trusted advisor? ~ Shook Yee Teh

Making sense of work. People work for many reasons. For some it is a drudgery that must be endured, for others it is purely economic, and for others work has a sense of meaning. When work is a setting and opportunity for employees to find meaning, their personal lives are more abundant, but they are also more productive. People can work harder and put in their time and go through the motions, but when they put in their energy and emotion, they are more likely to produce more. In addition, when employees create meaning, their customers will feel the same and their investors will be happier. Making meaning makes sense and cents. ~ Dan Schawbel interviewing Dave Ulrich

Employees first. What we want at HCL is passion. We want people to be burning up with desire to pursue their interests. Fascinated by their assignments. Jumping out of their skins with excitement about what’s next. Eagerly pursuing better solutions and new initiatives. We have found that the Employees First approach produces far more passion than any motivational or recognition program. Why? Because it proves that management understands the importance of the work being done by the employees in the value zone. It demonstrates that we are actively helping them in ways that make it easier for them to do their jobs. It shows that we trust them to do what needs to be done in the way they believe it should be done. And it shows that we respect them for the value they bring to the company. Vineet Nayar in Forbes

Click on name. Click on the names after each quotation to go directly to that author’s post.

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David Zinger, M.Ed., helps organizations and individuals improve engagement. He is a writer, educator, speaker, and consultant who founded the 2600 member Employee Engagement Network. David’s website offers you 1100 posts/articles on the engagement reaching over 1,000,000 page views in the first 4 months of 2010.

Comments

Thanks for the feature, David. Much appreciated. If companies can get just those six elements you highlighted correct, they’re well on the to fostering an environment in which people would want to engage.